Muslim World

DAMASCUS: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on Saturday sought to allay fears of the Arab world over India's increasing military ties with Israel, saying India's cooperation with Tel Aviv will not dilute its relations with the Arab countries. "Our friends in the Arab world should rest assured in this regard. The important point is India has not diluted and will not dilute any aspect of its relationship with the Arab countries," Vajpayee said in a wide ranging interview with the Damascus English...

CAIRO: Egypt's President opened the new year with a dramatic call for a 'revolution' in Islam to reform interpretations of the faith entrenched for hundreds of years, which he said have made the Muslim world a source of 'destruction' and pitted it against the rest of the world. The speech was Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's boldest effort yet to position himself as a modernizer of Islam. His professed goal is to purge the religion of extremist ideas of intolerance and violence...

WASHINGTON: Noting that the US presidency of Barack Obama has created great hope in the Islamic world, the Saudi King Abdullah told a top US official that he should restore America's credibility in the Muslim countries, according to a leaked State Department cable by WikiLeaks . This was communicated personally by the King, to John Brennan, Obama's counter terrorism advisor, when the latter went to meet him in March 2009...

AMSTERDAM: A Dutch legislator's film that portrays Islam as a ticking time bomb aimed at Western democracy prompted denunciations from Muslim capitals and street protests in Pakistan, but a restrained reaction from Dutch Muslims who had expected worse. The 15-minute film entitled "Fitna," an Arabic word meaning "ordeal," by anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders was posted on a Web site late Thursday. Friday, the site LiveLeak.com removed...

TORONTO: The Muslim world should form a new international order based on "modernity" to protect and preserve itself from the sudden swell of extremism launched by the Islamic State, according to a senior BJP leader. "Unless Muslim world evolve global strategies to practice 'modernity' which has four non-negotiable fundamentals - democracy, freedom of faith, gender equality and economic equity - Jihadi movement would devastate Muslim communities," BJP spokesperson M J...

SRINAGAR: Ruling National Conference today condemned the alleged atrocities and "war-crimes" being committed by Israeli forces in Gaza and asked the Muslim world to put up a united face to stop Israeli aggression in Palestine. "National Conference has condemned in the strongest of terms the atrocities and war-crimes being committed by Israeli forces in Gaza and has expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine," party's provincial president Nasir Aslam Wani said at a meeting...

TORONTO: The Muslim world should form a new international order based on "modernity" to protect and preserve itself from the sudden swell of extremism launched by the Islamic State, according to a senior BJP leader. "Unless Muslim world evolve global strategies to practice 'modernity' which has four non-negotiable fundamentals - democracy, freedom of faith, gender equality and economic equity - Jihadi movement would devastate Muslim communities," BJP spokesperson M J...

Ruchir Sharma It is not such a bad year, after all. Even as China experiences a hard landing of sorts and the large commodity economies of Brazil and Russia seem stuck in the mud, some less-celebrated emerging markets are charting their own course and breaking out on the upside. This is the Third Coming of growth in emerging markets. The first was a dizzying period of discovery from the late 1980s to early 1990s and the second came in the...

PARIS: France said it would temporarily close its embassies and schools in 20 countries on Friday after a French magazine published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad , a move it fears will further inflame tensions over a film mocking the prophet. "We have indeed decided as a precautionary measure to close our premises, embassies, consulates, cultural centres and schools," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said of the shut-down on Friday, prayer day across the ...

These days, a not insignificant part of the non-Muslim world is averse to a not insignificant part of the Muslim world and, almost definitely, vice versa. This has actually been the case for hundreds of years but the numbers have gone up since 9/11. Fear, as always, is the key ? you dislike something you're scared of. It makes sense from a biological point of view, and once upon a time had great survival value when we huddled naked in caves and scrounged around, or killed, for raw food.

President Bush's strong support for Islamabad's idea of a Reconstruction Opportunity Zone being carved out of the backward regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan has been given no more than a footnote, if that, in accounts of the American President's historic visit to the subcontinent. The idea of such a zone has been, quite understandably, completely overshadowed by the much more dramatic developments on the nuclear front. But this is an idea that may soon demand closer attention not...

Read: A Stained Glass Not to be Shattered The book is a compelling and insightful study of the conflict between the "thistle" representing the prickly-pride and steadfastness of the Muslim tribal societies on the periphery and the latest technologically advanced killer-weapon in the age of globalisation â€" the "drone". It elucidates the struggle all over the world between the power of states and borders â€" forming the interstices â€" as the driving force of America's war on...

NEW DELHI: Voicing concern over "innocent" Muslim youths lodged in prisons without a trial, Union minister Harish Rawat today said "law cannot have different yardsticks". Observing that terrorism has no religion, Rawat said all organisations, including right-wing outfits, which indulge in terror activities should be condemned in the same spirit. Addressing a conference on 'India and Muslim World in the 21st century,' the Water Resources minister sought to take a...

Ruchir Sharma It is not such a bad year, after all. Even as China experiences a hard landing of sorts and the large commodity economies of Brazil and Russia seem stuck in the mud, some less-celebrated emerging markets are charting their own course and breaking out on the upside. This is the Third Coming of growth in emerging markets. The first was a dizzying period of discovery from the late 1980s to early 1990s and the second came in the...

UNITED NATIONS: President Barack Obama today invoked the words of Mahatma Gandhi in his address to the UN General Assembly here as he remembered US envoy to Libya who was killed in violent protests that erupted in the aftermath of an anti-Islam film , saying the "crude and disgusting" video was no excuse for an "attack on America". Obama took the stage at the UN General Assembly hall to address world leaders in what is his last international...

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is likely to touch upon the issue of recent unrest in the Muslim world over an anti-Islam film during his speech at the annual UN General Assembly in New York tomorrow, officials said. Obama travels to New York today to attend 67th annual session of General assembly of the world body. Noting that the UN General Assembly always provides an opportunity for the US President to put the international situation in...

WASHINGTON: Kashmir-born Farah Pandith, appointed as the Special US Representative to Muslim world by the Obama administration, today said that she is overwhelmed with the response from India over her new job. "I was actually very overwhelmed with the response in India... I really have to say it was really very special for me as somebody of Indian heritage," Pandith told the State Department press corps at her maiden press conference. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...

LONDON: Against the backdrop of violent protests across the Muslim world against an anti-Islam film, Hollywood is terrified of inciting further retribution against America over a slew of new films depicting the mission to kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden . Two films on the subject have finished shooting and are scheduled for release before Christmas, with a third awaiting the go-ahead, Daily Express reported today. It said that all these...

LONDON: Against the backdrop of violent protests across the Muslim world against an anti-Islam film, Hollywood is terrified of inciting further retribution against America over a slew of new films depicting the mission to kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden . Two films on the subject have finished shooting and are scheduled for release before Christmas, with a third awaiting the go-ahead, Daily Express reported today. It said that all these movies...

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will impose a ban to prevent a controversial anti-Islam film from being aired in the country after widespread protests across the Muslim world. The religious affairs ministry said today that every possible step will be taken to prevent the film from being aired in Sri Lanka. "We condemn any acts disrespecting any religion," Religious Affairs Minister M K D S Gunawardena said. "We will not allow the screening of this film which is a...